


Soulmark

by mmmdraco



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Blood and Gore, Canon-Typical Violence, M/M, Podfic Available, Soul Bond, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-18
Updated: 2014-04-18
Packaged: 2018-01-19 22:07:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,638
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1485838
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mmmdraco/pseuds/mmmdraco
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>On Stiles' 18th birthday, his soulmark forms.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Soulmark

**Author's Note:**

> There are all of these posts on tumblr (you can find my tumblr [here](http://superhappygenki.tumblr.com)) about some kind of plot device wherein people are marked as being bound for thing or person X. Those always stick in my head and they marinated and came up with this. The rating is for violence rather than sex.

On Stiles' 18th birthday, his soulmark forms. He's still not sure why they call it that when it's less a mark and more a name etched into his flesh, though more dark scar than tattoo. He can read it upside down where it forms right over his heart, though, and part of him is elated because it's a name he knows: Derek. Then the rest of him kicks in to remind him that he's seen Derek Hale close enough to naked enough times that he would have recognized his own name if Derek had shown the mark or mentioned the name. The guy he's fallen for after everything they've been through and the guy he's destined for are two different people and it makes sense because things like that hurt and Stiles knows all too well about pain.

It's not until a few months later in the summer that Stiles finally lets anyone see the mark when the pack gets ready to head into the ocean from under the giant umbrella on the beach where they'd eaten lunch. He brushes all of the pack's questions off with a laugh that sounds fake to his own ears and grins up at Derek where he's raising his eyebrows and tracing the word with his eyes. "It must be nice," Derek says with a huff of breath. "I never got a soulmark."

A pit opens in Stiles' stomach just so it can try to consume him. After everything that Derek's gone through, he's one of the unmarked? Geez, no wonder he plays lone wolf so well. Stiles shrugs it off and covers the mark with one hand because he'd rather be unmarked than marked with a name that means so much and so little right now. He'll find his own Derek one day and he's sure to have the same kind of compatible relationship any soulmarked couple does, just without the depth of feeling he has for _his_ Derek because saving each others lives and teaching each other means so much more than running into each other in a bar and discovering that they have compatible soulmarks and they can give it a go. 

It's funny because the soulmarks give some leeway. There is no single Derek out there. There are many. Any Tom and Harry who bore the other's name could get together and have something that could work even if there are particular sets that would be objectively greater than others. Stiles knows, though, that his own name is rare enough in Poland where the name has meaning still. In America, there's only one other person who even has the name and they're on the opposite side of the country. Stiles is pretty sure the guy is about 86, too. He can find Dereks easily enough, but Dereks finding him require precision so he basically has to hurry up and wait for someone else to do a proper Google search to find him and Mr. Octogenarian.

Melancholy gets cast over the rest of the beach trip because Stiles is too inside of his own head to be the one to keep things lively. He wishes soulmarks didn't matter, but the stigma was so great when it came to people who married outside of their mark that Stiles knows he can't do it. It's one thing to have fun first before you got your mark, or to pair up with someone else if your soulmarked partner dies. The unmarked sometimes get to find their happiness with each other, but it's widely recognized as a love which doesn't really compare to the soulmarking. 

He meets four Dereks before the end of summer, and finding out that they all bear normal names for their marks doesn't bother him at all. He wishes them happiness and tries to remind himself that he's barely eighteen. His father hadn't found his mother until they were in their early 20s. Yeah, his life had gotten hectic lately and it felt like he was so much older now than he really was, but eighteen. He still had time to work with.

By the time he's twenty, he's sure that his future bondmate just isn't old enough to have gotten their mark yet. And, really, if would figure. He still wants Derek, feels it more strongly every day that they're the only ones in the pack who don't have someone and end up kind of shoved together like a sandwich made with the heels of a loaf of bread. He's closer and closer to letting himself not care about stigma because he cares so much more about the Derek he knows so well and could never give up. But, his crush on Derek had been there for years so perhaps it was just some kind of karmic thing where he was destined to wait to punish him for wanting someone unmarked. 

There's a battle that happens against a rival pack when Stiles is home on a weekend from college and it's bloody. He's the odd human out and getting the beating of his life, but their pack outnumbers the rival one even if their total number of claws doesn't, so it's still something of a fair fight in as much as any fight can he fair when the other werewolves are going for the jugular. They're all bloody and exhausted when they've got the other pack down to one member standing, the other alpha. He's winded and missing chunks of flesh that can't quite seem to heal yet, and they can see him bolstering himself for one last attack.

Derek's chest is pried open as Scott manages to rip the alpha's throat out, and Stiles clenches his jaw because of course that's the only way he can't even try to have the option of the Derek he'd choose over every other. He's kneeling in the blood pouring out of Derek, though, bone splinters in his palms as he tries to push Derek's ribcage back together like closing a gate. He's hyperventilating and Derek's eyes are open and happier than Stiles can remember seeing them in years despite the way his body is failing. He's looking at Stiles and smiling even as blood overflows the corners of his mouth.

There's a glint of something as Lydia aims the beam of her flashlight toward them and Stiles' eyes go comically wide. "Bring the light closer. Shine it on his heart!"

When Lydia does, Stiles lets out a sob and puts his hand through the gap still in Derek's chest to touch what he sees to make sure it's real. There's a flare of light on Derek's heart where there's a name scarred into the tissue. It's a name he knows all too well and he's pretty sure his Derek isn't destined for Mr. East Coast Octogenarian. Scott comes over to finish pushing Derek's ribs back into place as much as they'll go and Stiles picks up Derek's hand and presses it against his own chest where he feels the warmth of his own soulmark responding. 

The air is silent and cold and Stiles brings Derek's hand up to his mouth to kiss, his eyes closing as he tries to push through the bond between them, the bond he'd never been able to give up on even when everything seemed hopeless. Derek draws in a shallow breath and his hand clutches at Stiles'. The blood finally seems to stop flowing from him, at least. By all rights, he should be dead. That it only takes him half an hour to get back to a place where Stiles finally manages to let go of some of the worry that had filled him is miraculous.

Derek takes almost a week to heal fully and everyone takes their turns in sticking around his place to help with whatever he needs. Stiles is around more than most, but he still hasn't had any time alone with the man.

Finally, Derek kicks everyone out. His hand locks firmly onto Stiles' as he glares down any protests. Stiles licks his lips and nods to the members of the pack who have been trying to get Derek's spirits up. Hopefully, he'll have a better shot at it.

"You know, the say the closer to your heart your soulmark is, the more amazing your love will be." Stiles sits across from Derek in his bed, their knees just touching.

Derek smiles and covers his chest with one palm. "If I'd known it was there and it was you, I would have ripped my own heart out to see it."

Stiles moves closer so that his hands can grip Derek's. "You can see it over mine now. I hope that's enough."

"I can't pronounce your name anyway. Too many Z's." Derek pulls Stiles over to lay beside him, smiling as his fingers slide under Stiles' shirt until his fingers are over the soulmark. "You know, when you didn't tell anyone what your soulmark said at first, I thought maybe you were unmarked like I was and I had a chance. Seeing my name on you and thinking it wasn't really me? That hurt."

"Yeah." Stiles nestles his head into the crook of Derek's side. "You're not unmarked anymore, though. You never were. You've always had me, even before we could read it on each other."

Derek grins. "Well, I'm still a little unmarked." He turns to graze his teeth against Stiles' ear. "Mark me?"

Smirking, Stiles presses his mouth over Derek's heart where all of the skin has healed and smoothed. He pulls a bruise to the surface of the skin, even knowing it'll fade in a bit, and swears he can see a Z tucked into the pattern. All he wants for the future is what the present finally gave him and that's the most satisfying gift of all.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Podfic: Soulmark](https://archiveofourown.org/works/1552787) by [mmmdraco](https://archiveofourown.org/users/mmmdraco/pseuds/mmmdraco)




End file.
